| A man with 11 years of experience as a principal at three Southern
California high schools will become principal of Chaffey High School July
1.
David O. Stine, currently an assistant vice president of marketing for an
insurance company, was appointed to the post by the Chaffey Joint Union High
School District Board of Trustees Tuesday night.
Stine replaces Fred C. Adams, who is retiring after 12 years as Chaffey
principal.
"He (Stine) has been out of education for the last two or three
years," said Mike Dirksen, Chaffey district superintendent. "He's
missed it a lot and…he's ready to come back to education on the high school
level."
Stine said he took the job with Surety Life of Salt Lake City in 1981 after a
friend asked him to come aboard and work out training programs for employees.
"I was ready for a career change," he added.
Now, with the training programs in place, "I felt a personal need to
return to…public education," Stine said.
He didn't decide to come back to education in this area just because there
was an opening here. In the first place, he wanted to return to
California.
He also knew Chaffey High School, having been part of the accreditation team
that visited the school in 1976.
And Stine had met Dirksen on a another accreditation in San Diego.
"I'm looking forward to returning to the role of high school
principal," he said.
"The role…is demanding and challenging. I know the staff at Chaffey
High School. It's a very mature and experienced one and it has a fine
reputation."
Chaffey's position as the nearest thing to an inner-city school in the West
Valley isn't a problem, Stine said. "The students have a school to go to,
an identity, and can build pride."
Neither are the campus' aging buildings a stumbling block. "I think
that's really one of the assets -- the beautiful architecture and the grounds
are so well-kept," Stine said.
Adams, in an interview in March, said he announced his retirement early so he
could help orient the new principal to the school.
"I came here with 18 years of experience," Adams said, "…but
you don't just walk through that front door and understand this
school."
Stine taught secondary school for six years before becoming vice principal at
San Bernardino High School in 1964.
Two years later, he became principal at Twentynine Palms High School in the
Morongo Unified School District and in 1969 took the position of assistant
superintendent for business and classified personnel director for that
district.
In 1971 he was appointed principal at La Mirada High School and three years
later was principal at Mt. Carmel High School in the Poway Unified School
District.
After five years at Mt. Carmel he served as Poway's director of planning and
research for two years and then, in 1981, took the position with Surety
Life.
Stine received a bachelor's degree in English at San Diego State College in
1958, a master's in administration from Cal State Los Angeles in 1964 and a
doctorate in education administration from Northern Arizona University in 1980. |
